Workshop Leader/Coach
Virginia Bell offers services as a skilled and creative workshop leader who brings years of classroom experience to the adult and peer workshop environment. She also works one-on-one as a poetry "coach" with writers as well as artists working in other media, e.g. photographers, jazz vocalists and song writers.
She has given poetry and creative nonfiction workshops at the Northwest Cultural Council, the RHINO Poetry Forum, and The Chicago High School for the Arts on the following topics:
"Advanced Creative Nonfiction Workshop"
"Tuning out the Megaphone: Defamiliarization, or The Art of Making Strange"
"'It Is Nothing Like That': Conversations Between Poems and Why We Should Be Eavesdropping"
"Making Whoopee: The Use of Idiom in American Poetry"
"The Synoptic Moment: The Beginning, Middle, and End of Poems"
"How to Build a Poem" One-on-One Personalized Workshop
“‘If you’re a flower, I’m your zombie gardener’: Same Language Translation and the Writing Process”
“Stanzas and the Architecture of Poetry: How We Move From Room to Room”
“Songs of Ourselves: A Gentle Introduction to the Meter and Music of Poetry”
“Persona Poems: Radical Empathy and the Creation of Voice”
“’Truth be told, I do not want to forget’: Poetry and the Writing of History”
“Poetic Turns: Crafting Moments of Sweet Surprise”
"I never miss a workshop that Virginia Bell leads. Her presentation of new material is both thorough and fresh; most recently, she discussed the stanza as architecture and how the poem moves as if from room to room. Virginia truly steers the discussion, leading the group to give feedback that will help the poet rethink or rewrite, and she begins the critiquing with a positive spin—a discussion of what is working. She is aware of the nuances in the room even in a large group. I think it is her energy at the table and her subject-matter expertise that impress me most; she is very present. Virginia is well-versed in both poetic art and craft, and her style is inclusive and encouraging."
~NWCC Workshop Participant
She has given poetry and creative nonfiction workshops at the Northwest Cultural Council, the RHINO Poetry Forum, and The Chicago High School for the Arts on the following topics:
"Advanced Creative Nonfiction Workshop"
"Tuning out the Megaphone: Defamiliarization, or The Art of Making Strange"
"'It Is Nothing Like That': Conversations Between Poems and Why We Should Be Eavesdropping"
"Making Whoopee: The Use of Idiom in American Poetry"
"The Synoptic Moment: The Beginning, Middle, and End of Poems"
"How to Build a Poem" One-on-One Personalized Workshop
“‘If you’re a flower, I’m your zombie gardener’: Same Language Translation and the Writing Process”
“Stanzas and the Architecture of Poetry: How We Move From Room to Room”
“Songs of Ourselves: A Gentle Introduction to the Meter and Music of Poetry”
“Persona Poems: Radical Empathy and the Creation of Voice”
“’Truth be told, I do not want to forget’: Poetry and the Writing of History”
“Poetic Turns: Crafting Moments of Sweet Surprise”
"I never miss a workshop that Virginia Bell leads. Her presentation of new material is both thorough and fresh; most recently, she discussed the stanza as architecture and how the poem moves as if from room to room. Virginia truly steers the discussion, leading the group to give feedback that will help the poet rethink or rewrite, and she begins the critiquing with a positive spin—a discussion of what is working. She is aware of the nuances in the room even in a large group. I think it is her energy at the table and her subject-matter expertise that impress me most; she is very present. Virginia is well-versed in both poetic art and craft, and her style is inclusive and encouraging."
~NWCC Workshop Participant